Yolanda Celaya-Evans (Memorial Scholarship)

Yolanda M. Celaya-Evans was born October 11, 1952, in Salinas to Ernest and Lorrie Celaya and was brought up in Gonzales.

She loved school and reading, and dreamed of becoming a Zoologist and studying African wildlife. In the Spring of 1978, she started attending Hartnell Community College. Her business courses there enabled her to get a Personnel Secretary job with the Monterey County Office of Education (MCOE).

Four years later, she returned to Hartnell while working and earned her Associated Arts Degree in 1987.

Yolanda eventually took time off and volunteered at the Monterey SPCA wildlife center for several years before returning to work at MCOE and to school, where she earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in the College of Professional Studies from the University of San Francisco and then a Special Education Teaching Certificate from San Jose State University. She completed her working life as a Special Education Teacher for approximately six years.

Yolanda loved to travel with her husband Thad, and was deeply devoted to her family.